It’s the Internet-age old conundrum: How can you tell if something in your Facebook news feed is a hoax or scam? This week Facebook announced that they will start tagging hoaxes for you in your newsfeed. Actually, they will start letting you know when other users have identified and tagged something as a hoax.
Category: Scams
We get a lot of visitors who are looking to learn how to identify and recognize an online dating site scammer, and so we thought we’d tell you about this current Internet dating site scam. It’s a riff on a “friend of a friend” scam, in which a person of your same sex contacts you to tell you about their “friend” who is desperately interested in meeting you.
There is a new scam featuring the phone number 202-599-9670. So far, the call is coming from 710-201-2246.
“Facebook To Begin Charging Users $2.99/mo Starting November 1st” says the headline that has many Facebook users in a tizzy. So is it true that Facebook is going to start charging $2.99? No! That headline, and the article that appeared under it, were written and published on the National Report website, which is a satirical website similar to the Onion. So, put another way, imagine the Onion printing an article about Facebook to begin charging – how seriously would you take it?
The “One Ring” and “Missed Call” cell phone scam is becoming more common. According to both the FTC and the FCC, the way this works is that you will get a call from a number that you don’t recognize, starting with what seems to be a U.S.-based area code, such as 809, 876, 649, 268, 473, or 284. The scam is that when you call back to see who it is trying to reach you, you are actually connected to an international “pay per minute” or “pay per call” line, that will run up your phone charges.
Anybody who has used LinkedIn knows that they push their premium LinkedIn accounts constantly. But did you know that they hide their less expensive premium account options from you?
Here is the full text of one of the newest Wells Fargo Phishing Spam, which started showing up this month (May, 2014). This one comes with an attached HTML file named “Wells Fargo Instruction Form.html”. Whatever you do, don’t download or open it!
If you’ve seen the warnings on Facebook, you may be wondering “Is the Talking Angela app safe?” The Talking Angela app is basically safe for children, despite the revival of the Internet hoax chain letter on Facebook that is making the rounds. The post which is being shared around Facebook begins with “I cant even in words say what I just found out.. I am SHOCKED…” and goes on to tell how Talking Angela was caught asking their child inappropriate questions.
The newest social engineering scam email hitting some inboxes is the “thank you for your Red Sox ticket order” email. In this spam, the fake order confirmation tells you that you have ordered over $200 ($238 in the example below) worth of Red Sox tickets, which have been charged to your MasterCard.
A new batch of phishing emails, supposedly from TigerDirect.com, went out this week. Using social engineering to make you think that a costly order has been placed in your name, the email seeks to create a sense of urgency that will cause you to click on the links contained in the email, which of course go to the phishing site.
Want to learn how to bust a dating site scammer? There are 3 steps to detecting a scammer on an online dating site (after going through the steps, we will show you a step-by-step real-life example).
If you get an email saying that your password on Pinterest was successfully changed, and you know that you didn’t change your Pinterest password, don’t go running to Pinterest, and definitely don’t click any links, before reading this!
The phone spam calls start out essentially the same, “Hi, this is Rachel from cardholder services..” or “Hi, this is Rachel from cardmember services…”.. then usually it will either say something like “..calling in reference to your current credit card account. It is urgent that you {take some action}”, or “Please hold for an important message…” or she will ask you to select from several options with your phone’s touch pad. Most often it is “Press 1 to speak to an operator, press 2 to be removed from the call list.” Stacey and Stacy have been making a lot of these calls too, about extended warranties. These are so-called “robocalls” – generated (often overseas) with the Rachel or other similar script and computerized dialing, and almost always peddaling some scam, be it debt relief, credit card consolidation, mortgage refinancing, or some similar financial scam. It has gotten so bad that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ran a “Robocall Challenge”, offering a $50,000 reward for the best proposed technology to deal with the burgeoning robocall problem.
Ah yes, email scammers certainly love Facebook, because they know that Facebook users have become like trained monkeys, always clicking on any link to see who has said what about them. This latest scam, which takes you to a site in Russia, draws you in by saying that someone commented on your photo (in our example, it says “Blake Jones commented on your photo”).
Whether you call it spear phishing, spear fishing, or spearphishing, it’s a computer hack of your email in a way that’s targeted toward you, where you work, or a group you belong to. And, it masquerades as coming from someone you know and trust from your family, friends, workplace, or social group.